UP IN SMOKE - Texas Christian University

UP IN SMOKE - Texas Christian

FEATURES | 4 BUZZWORTHY Can the South by Southwest acts live up to the hype now that the festival has passed? SPORTS | 6 SWING AWAY The baseball team is opening up its conference schedule with a preseason tournament in San Diego. tcu Daily Skiff WWW.TCUDAILYSKIFF.COM THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2006 VOL. 103, ISSUE 94 STEPHEN SPILLMAN / Photo Editor A fire broke loose Wednesday morning inside the TCU Bookstore at the corner of University Drive and Berry Street. The structure was in the process of renovation, and the fire caused and estimated $1 million in damage. UPINSMOKE Official says cutting torch to blame for bookstore fire By ASHLEY CHAPMAN and BRIAN WOODDELL Staff Writers Arson investigators have determined a cutting torch caused the Wednesday three-alarm fire that gutted the inside of the former TCU Bookstore and caused the roof to collapse, a Fort Worth Fire Deparment official said. Roofing materials were superheated by the torch, used by renovation workers to remove part of the building’s roof supports, said Lt. Kent Worley , public information officer for the Fort Worth Fire Department. He said the layers of roof materials smoldered for hours and caught fire on the east side of the building. Worley said a Fort Worth police officer noticed smoke and alerted the Fire Department at 1:50 a.m. Within five minutes, engine 21 arrived at ELIZABETH GOOCH / Special to the Skiff the bookstore. At 2:10 a.m., the fire was classified as a two-alarm blaze, escalating to a three-alarm fire at 2:13 a.m., he said. Worley said firefighters started working inside the building, but they were evacuated once the roof started to collapse. “They knew that the building was Program to expand with grant By JEFF ESKEW Staff Reporter A program started more than 10 years ago finally has the money to start making its goals a reality. The Center for Urban Education was given a $93,000 grant by TCU’s Vision in Action initiative. The center will now be able to hire a new director and fund partnerships, new programs and internships that will allow the center to expand its services. For the last 10 years, the CUE has recruited students ONLINE Check out the Skiff Web site at www.tcudailyskiff.com for a slide show of the bookstore fi re. going to be lost, so they pulled out,” he said. “We had heavy fire on (the west side), so we started doing a lot of our efforts to protect the buildings that were immediately to the west.” About 100 bystanders, another 60 firefighters and several police officers were at the scene. The Fire Department sent 15 trucks and support vehicles. Bar patrons Josue Lopez and Katy Daume had just spent their night at The University Pub when they heard the bookstore was on fire. “(The owner of The Pub) was very cautious and told us to get our cars out of the area,” said Lopez, a senior entrepreneurial management and Spanish major. Daume, a senior marketing major, said warnings came from firefighters soon after, as flames approached power lines. “All the cops said, ‘The power lines are on fire — get out of here now,’” Daume said. “Two seconds See FIRE, page 2 and prepared them to become educational leaders, teachers and administrators that will work in urban schools . It has conducted research on the best practices to use in urban schools. As part of the CUE education, students, who have a concentration in an academic field outside of education, work one-on-one with a professor in their respective concentrations. If a science education major were to join the program, he or she would be working with a science professor. The professor and student then decide what area school in which the student should be placed. Cecilia Silva , an associate professor in the CUE , said the program is a collaborative effort among faculty in the School of Education who are interested in issues dealing with education in cities. “I support new teachers in being prepared to work with linguistically and culturally diverse populations,” Silva said. Family illness causes lecture to be canceled MICHAEL BOU-NACKLIE / Photographer Fort Worth firefighters emerge from the back of the TCU Bookstore after an early morning that blaze drew firefighters to the building Wednesday. The philosophy department’s Green Honors Chair lecture scheduled for today was canceled because the speaker had to tend to his ill mother-in-law, a TCU philosophy professor said. Owen Flanagan, a philosophy professor at Duke University, was to speak to students about how meditation affects the brain during his speech, “The Bodhisattva’s Brain: Neuroscience, Virtue and Happiness.” Phillip Galvin, a TCU philosophy professor, said he was disappointed Flanagan could not attend the lecture, but he understood the situation. “It is unfortunate that it he was unable to come, but it was entirely appropriate,” Galvin said. “You have to tend to your responsibilities.” Galvin said the department might try to reschedule Flanagan for the Green Chair’s fall lectures, but he was not certain if the department would choose Flanagan as its speaker. Faculty address grading system By TALIA SAMPSON Staff Reporter The much-debated issue of implementing a plus/minus grading system will be put before the Faculty Senate this afternoon. Although the House of Student Representatives voted against a resolution to support a plus/minus grading system earlier this month, Faculty Senator David Grant said he reminded the Faculty Senate Academic Excellence Committee that implementing a plus/ minus grading system falls under faculty jurisdiction. Grant , committee chair, will present the motion to the Faculty Senate to approve and forward a request for a plus/ minus grading system. Although Grant said he does not think the motion will come to a vote tomorrow, he said “The important thing to keep in mind is if the Senate approves this, it still has other committees to go through.” But, Grant said, “If they vote against it, it would kill it in the water because it means the representative group of faculty would not support it.” Trevor Heaney , student body president, said he thought a lack of understanding about plus/minus was to blame for the negative vote from the House. “Sitting in on that meeting, (plus/minus) was a heavily debated topic,” said Heaney , a junior finance and entrepreneurial management major. “We didn’t have our finger on what would be best for students.” Grant said he regretted that he was unable to attend the meeting to help clarify information about plus/minus. He was occupied with comforting the wife of Daryl D. Schmidt , professor and a former chair of the religion department, who died the day of the meeting. Jason Ratigan , chair of the Student Government Association’s Academic Affairs Committee, presented the resolution to the House and said he thought a lot of the negative votes came from representatives who did not believe they could accurately represent the views of students on plus/minus. “What I believe happened is that you had some people who supported it, some against, and a whole lot in the middle who felt they couldn’t represent the students because it is such a complex issue” Ratigan , a senior history major, said. Andy Fort , Faculty Senate chair, said although there may be some debate, he thinks the plus/minus issue will be approved, and take up very little of the Faculty Senate’s time. Fort , a professor of religion, said he believes the report on See GRANT, page 2 — Dan McGraw See FACULTY, page 2 WEATHER TODAY: Scattered storms, 76/58 TOMORROW: Isolated storms, 81/61 SATURDAY: Isolated storms, 80/61 FUN FACT A Facebook group, “Burn the TCU Bookstore,” existed prior to Wednesday morning’s fire. Message board entries date back to Sept. 10, 2005. TODAY’S HEADLINES NEWS: Are you minding your manners? page 2 FEATURES: New York band shows its bones, page 4 SPORTS: Baseball opens MWC preseason play, page 6 CONTACT US Send your questions, compliments, complaints and hot tips to the staff at NEWS2SKIFF@TCU.EDU